This thread will simply muse at the possibility that eventually having more and more power behind graphics will eventually yield negligable results.

I was thinking about how people can argue between Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 looking better than the other. Both games, in my opinion, will look fantastic and jaw-dropping. But they don't really look all that different from the other. A lot of games are like this cross-platform; you'd have to go through with a maginfying glass to find some really big differences.

I've had a thought after this. What would you all say to graphics having a visual upper limit? Let's liken this to a graph.

Hyperbolic Tangent, tanh(x)

Using the first quadrant (going from 0-5 on the x- and y-axes), I'll label x graphical/computer power and y visual end product.

Starting with very basic graphical power, there is a significant difference between the graphics of, say, 0.5 and 1.0. As the graphical power increases, though, the difference in the visual end product is no longer very significant. Does this seem logical?

Now, let's apply this to the consoles. Wii would be about 0.5-1.0 (I'm being generous here) while the PS3 and 360 would both be beyond 2. The graph above is probably simpler than it would actually be if we could quantify the visual end products, but regardless the difference between the graphical power of the 360 and PS3 would be negligible beyond the upcoming games.

So, it would now come down to how the more powerful console, whichever it is, uses that extra power to shine in other areas. But that's another topic entirely.

What do you all think? Does it really matter if the textures of one game look only slightly better than another?

true theory for sure

for me as long as it looks hot, i dont care about minutiae

I don't think that GT5 and Forza aren't good examples. I think we still have a LONG ways to go in order to reach the uncanny valley (I don't think even Heavy Rain has truly entered it), and then we have to consider the possibility of actually achieving such good animation and graphics, that our games manage to get out of the uncanny valley.

While I did disagree with people about the violence in GoW III, I do have a genuine worry, or more like interest, in what will happen as games become more realistic. Will we literally have what crazy Jack Thompson preached, which are murder simulators? How realistic do we want to go?

I know people who were disturbed by Saving Private Ryan (the one part that made me, not sick, but kinda touched/disturbed was when I saw the soldier in the D-Day landing having his intenstines come out. But it wasn't that, which made me feel weird, but the great acting and emotion when the guy screamed "Moma! Moma!" and sobbed. I sorta put myself in his shoes, and wondered how it'll feel to know you're not only physically disfigured/mutilated, but that your existence is going to go), so what happens when Call of Duty implements God of War's zipper technology, but with more realistic graphics, and a realistic context (instead of the over the top ridiculous violence we have in God of War).

Until we actually feel as sick as we will watching a snuff/real film, then graphics haven't improved one bit IMHO.

Well, what you are talking about has more to do with how the graphics are used, not the mere application of graphical power. Games could create that sense of dread, sure, but it is incredibly hard to make models and textures to recreate something so mortifying.

Overall, I think what you're talking about has more to do with creativity than the actual graphics.

Once graphics have reached their peak, i'm sure the "story" portion of gaming will make a triumphant return.

I believe we still have quite a distance to go graphically.
Gaming graphics are still relying on skin design so that the object being rendered is simply a frame of what the object is. This means that physics and constraints need to be emulated an object the frame represents.

It also means that any physical effects on an object require texture and polygonal manipulation rather than physical emulation on the object.

What this means is that after these "skin" graphics will look good enough to the eye, the processing and graphical power will need to be pushed up a good percentage of power before more realistic "physical" graphics come through.

And this actually fits very nicely into say the 0.95 to 1 value of the y axis of the above graph.

Surely we are a very long way from reaching the uncanny valley.  Even prerendered CGI films of recent years are not there, Beowolf for example.   Heavy Rain CGI is very good, but the in game graphics is not even close to the level of Uncharted 2 or Call of Duty 4.    With many programmers of this generation having about 4+ years of experience on their assigned console, I expect the next wave of games (2009, 2010) to represent the pinacle of graphic achievment for both 360 and PS3.  Keep in mind that some game programmers started working on 360 and PS3 code at about the same time,  mid 2004!    They should have figured out how to optimize their engines pretty darn well by now.   Any graphic advancement after the 2010 waves of game will be small engine refinements and should not have that shock and awe any more.  

I am starting to look forward to introduction of the 360-2 and PS4 around the 2011 E3 with planned release 2012.  Of course, this is just a guest on my part.

I certainly hope MS and Sony continue to push the envelope of hardware performance for next generation and not follow the Nintendo 1.5 approach.    I would be disappointed if they don't plan something at least 10 times the power of current systems.   

Graphics have a long way to go, and yet they've come far enough for most people.

Development costs are already too high, with no justification. Visual fidelity and realism is a little bit yesterday. We no longer need those things to be a focus.

Arguably we never did, as gameplay always proved in the end. But now more than ever, the passion for better visuals in consumer interest has never been more seasonal. We're at the tail end of this paradigm.

I am sure there have been games in the past where each one of us has grown attached to the characters. Good voice acting can go a long way towards creating believable characters. More so than really realistic looking models. It doesn't even have to be too gory for it to have an impact.

FF7 anyone?

@OP
It's what is commonly known as law of diminishing returns.